Part Seven: Weirdoes

Rated: K+

An eyebrow rose in worried interest. Clare Baron, aged six, wasn't playing with the other students.

Gwen was going into early childhood education and, as a requirement for her early childhood education class, was a teacher's aide at Bellwood Elementary in a first grade class. True, she had never seen the other children interact with the girl in question unless forced too. It was also true that she had sensed something…off about Clare the first time she had met her and held a sneaking suspicion the girl was not fully human as the other kids seemed to be.

Clare looked up as her teacher's helper plopped down beside her in the grassy field, "You gonna make me play with them?"

"Nah," Gwen replied in the same voice she used to talk to her own aged friends, she felt that to use sugar-coated voice on children was the same as insulting them. "You don't like them do you?"

Clare was blonde, blue eyed and ghostly white even though she sat in the sun for the entirety of every recess.

"They don't like me…like I care…"

Gwen frowned, that sounded far too familiar for comfort, "And why don't they like you?"

"I'm a freak."

"No you're not!" was the instinctive reply; the redhead took a deep, calming breath before asking, "Why do you think that?"

"'Cause I'm a freak. I do freaky stuff."

"Like what?"

"Nothing, nevermind." Clara quickly closed down, fearing that she gave too much away.

"Clare, you know that I'd never do anything to hurt you right?"

"You'll run away, you won't like me anymore."

"I think you'll find I won't do that…"

Clare bit her lip, "Okay, but don't tell Daddy I told you."

"I won't unless you or someone else's getting hurt," Gwen warned.

Clare nodded slowly, that was fair enough, before shutting her eyes and taking a deep breath. The grass around them withered and died. The child opened her hand to reveal a yellow orb of energy. She exhaled and it disappeared; she looked fearfully to the adult, saying, "See? Freaky…"

"Oh Clare, that's a good thing. Doesn't anyone in your family do that too?"

"No, Mommy did but she had to go away when I was really little…"

"Watch what I can do then." Gwen summoned her own, pink, energy. Clare's eyes went wide, "You're like me!"

"Yep."

"What am I?"

"Part alien, a race called Anodites. Only girls get the power so when my grandmother had two sons they didn't get the powers but when my Dad and Mom had me I got them. Your Mom was probably one. You are very special Clare; don't let anyone tell you anything else…"

"But you're so normal!"

"I've learned to control my powers—"

"Freaky things don't happen when you get mad?" Clare asked incredulously.

"They used too and sometimes still do when I get really really mad."

"Can you teach me?!"

"A little, in Anodite time I'm still a kid too and you're still just a baby."

"No way."

"Oh yes, very 'way'. When you're older, my age, I can ask my Grandmother to take you to Anodine, it's the Anodites' earth, to train."

"You didn't get to go?" Clare asked confusedly.

"I got the choice and I decided to stay to help humans stay safe. Some aliens, there're many many many many many more types than Anodites, aren't very nice and so it's my job to stop them. I'm like a space cop."

"Does your boyfriend know?"

Gwen smiled, leaning in closely, "He's a space cop too. He's part alien like us but not Anodite because he's a boy."

"The other boy too?"

"Oh Ben? Yeah but he's a special one; that weird watch he wears lets him change into a million nine hundred and ninety-nine different aliens. One at a time though."

"And the girl?"

"Julie? No. she's just human but she has this special alien dog that's part machine and he can turn into all types of things so she's a space cop who uses him like a robot suit; like Iron Man. My Grandpa, the one that married the alien, is a space cop too. He's just human though."

"How many aliens and space cops are on earth?"

"Hundreds; and they all look normal and act mostly normal too. Some are bad though. Just like humans. But we don't make crop circles and most of us don't kidnap cows and humans."

The bell rang, "C'mon. It's time for class. You'll keep my secrets right Clare?"

"Duh."

Gwen stood up and helped her young friend up and they headed back to the building.